

. V.3^\/ "o^*^--/ ^o,'^^\/ %.■' 






.*-^°- 












v*^ : 



















'^o 







"V.«i'^ 

















'P-'*, ■ 




U/" 



"^"■'^ The West for the Union, now and forever. 



->*«<wwv^- 



SPEECH 

/ OF 

HON. JNO. A. GURLEY, OF OHIO, 

ON 

THE STATE OF THE UNION, 

DELIVERED IN 

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 16th, 1861. 




The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and having under 
consideration the Army Appropriation Bill — 

Mr. GURLEY rose and said : 

Mr. Chairman : Coming as I do, from the most populous free State city in 
the West, whose commercial and moneyed interests are more strongly and gen- 
erally interwoven with the interests of the South than any other ; a city which 
casts nearly five thousand more votes than any in the valley of the Mississippi, 
I must regard it as a duty which I owe to my constituents to indicate in a few 
words to this body and the country, what are their views and intentions in refe- 
rence to the present crisis in our political affairs. 

Sir, for nearly a quarter of a century I have lived upon the very line of freedom 
and slavery, in or near a city from whence you can almost toss a stone to the 
Kentucky shore ; and I must therefore believe that I have a fair knowledge of, 
not only the political opinions of my own neighborhood, but of the nine or ten 
million people west of the Alleghany mountains. And here, in passing, I will 
take the liberty to say that, during the whole period of my residence in the 
West, the inhabitants of Kentucky and Ohio, in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, 
have lived together in the most friendly intercourse ; and, come what may, we 
mean that this state of things shall continue. Many of our young men have been 
so fortunate as to become the husbands of the fair daughters of Kentucky, while 
many of our young ladies have made the hearts of Kentuckians more than thrice 
glad by consenting to become their brides ; and if gentlemen here could only see 
the extraordinarily fine broods of rosy-cheeked and healthy children which we 
raise upon either side of the river from these happy unions, they would be at no 
loss to realize the bond of friendship that unites us together ; nor could they 
wonder at the remarkable increase of population in our fertile valley. 

Indeed, sir, truth compels me to say that such is the good understanding of 
the people in all that region, that if *our citizens were to hear of a slave insur- 
rection on the opposite side of the river — of which, I am happy to say, there is 



a^n 



no fear — endangering the lives of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of 
that State, they would fly to their relief as they would to the rescue of the in- 
mates of a burning building in our own city. 

And what more signal evidence of the fraternal feeling between the people of 
Tenness«e, Kentucky, and Ohio could be given than that furnished by the meet- 
ing of the legislators of those States last winter at Columbus, the capitol of my 
own State, where they addressed each other in words of warmest friendship ? 
Surely if any political heresy existed in our State it must have been quite as 
apparent then as now. But there was none against which the lawmakers of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee protested. They met and rejoiced together like brothers 
dwelling together in unity. 

Mr. Chairman, from the location of my country, it might be supposed that its 
people are among the most conservative of the free Spates; but whether they 
are so or not, one thing I do know : they are for the Union, the Constitution, 
and the enforcement of the laws, at all hazards, and at any cost. At the same 
time, we are for rendering justice to all sections of the Confederacy. We are 
for the faithful execution of all laws upon the national statute-book, and not for 
infringing upon a single right of the southern people. Who does not know that 
their rights are as sacred to them as ours to us? And as to the subject of 
slavery, as it exists by State laws, they have it. It is a business that belongs 
exclusively to them, not to us ; let them take care of it in their own way ; hands 
off ! That is all we ask. 

But, sir, while affirming these facts, I must frankly add some remarks on 
another subject of great moment and peril, in reference to which we are almost 
a unit. I refer, Mr. Chairman, to the now boldly preached doctrine of State 
•ecession — a doctrine so absurd to our minds that we are of the opinion that it 
is a waste of time to seriously consider it. What is it ? Why, sir, it is the 
wildest, the very wildest, phantasy of the nineteenth century. Who does not 
know that if one State can go out of the Union, so can two, or three, or half a 
dozen, until we find ourselves with twenty or thirty petty sovereignties, with 
clashing interests, and waging each against the other a horrible internecine war- 
fare '/ 

To say that our fathers contemplated any such secessio . , with its necessary 
fruits of blood andcarnarge, is to cast the foulest slander upon their memories. 

It is sufficient for us to know that we live under the very Government which 
their wisdom and sagacity founded ; the best and freest in the world. That it 
was established, not by States as States, but by the people of all the States. By 
them the Constitution was framed ; and by them it was ratified, in conventions 
called for that purpose. It is enough to know that it is recognized by the whole 
world as one of the great political Powers of tbe earth j and that, as such, it 
contains all the elements of self-preservation. It is a Government of internal as 
well as external power ; of law, of justice, of order, and supreme authority. It 
has the undisputed right to declare war, to make peace, and to do all things thaC 
a great nation may do in order to secure the peace and the happiness of its citi- 
zens. It has the right to defend itself against foes, whether they come from with- 
out or from within its borders ; from traitors at home, and enemies abroad. Oth- 
erwise, sir, that glorious flag which now floats over our heads, and regarded as 
the emblem of power everywhere, and the shield of our safety, would soon trail 
with dishonor in the dust. Who says that such a Government, one of the strong- 
est political Powers of the world, shall hS disrupted by traitors and rebels in 
arms? 

Remember, ye who now seek its destruction, that it has stood up strongly, 



proudly, gloriously, for more than seventy years, while the revolutions of the Old 
World have swept away more than a dozen thrones. It has encountered the 
perils of war with a powerful foreign nation, and several times grappled with 
rebellion at home, and in every conflict has come off more than victorious ; and it 
will do it now. 

Much has been said about compromises in both Houses ; but pray, what care 
the men who have carried their States out of the Union in their way, and stolen 
United States property, about compromises ? Who does not know that they 
laugh and mock at the attempts made here and elsewhere to bring them back by 
some bargain or compromise ? Who does not know that the controlling men of 
the cotton States spurn, and are ready to spit upon, every proposition looking to 
the restoration of peace and good order? They are too mad with rage to reason. 

Sir, they have already seized upon our forts, upon our armories, our custom- 
houses, our post offices, and magazines ; and to crown all, have fired into a vessel 
in the service of the United States, carrying at its mast-head the flag that every- 
where else is a shield of protection. What else do we hear? The telegraph 
tells us that they have planted cannon upon the banks of the Mississippi river 
to interrupt the navigation of that river ; to stop our steamboats or blow them to 
pieces. They insult the men from the Northwest who trade upon the Missis- 
sippi ; indeed, they treat them as a conquered people ! Our most honored mer- 
chants are, ordered home from Louisiana, and our most prudent business men are 
maltreated for no other crime under heaven than that of voting just as every fre« 
citizen of a free republic is entitled to vote. Anarchy reigns in portions of the 
South ; and men from the free States have far less liberty than they would have 
under any despotic Government of Europe. Sir, we have had one impressive 
illustration of this fact this morning in this House. A gentleman came forward, 
and asked that the name of a steamboat should be changed from that of John C. 
Fremont to some other name. Why was that ? Why did the owner of that 
boat come here, and ask for the change ? I will tell you, because I had it from 
his own lips. He said he could not go to the South with that boat ; that the 
people there would not permit him to land ; that they would not permit him to 
put ashore his cargo ; that they said " away," upon peril of his life. And this, 
in the freest Republic of the world, as you call it ; ay, sir, the model Republic 
of the world. The next thing you will hear will be that we must change our 
names, if offensive to the South, before we can travel there. 

Sir, it is time to stop the work of these traitors, and vindicate the laws. They 
must prevail, or the Government must put them down by its own strong arm. 
The trial cannot come too soon. Forbearance towards them has ceased to be a 
virtue. The people are everywhere asking, " Have we a Government?" I say, 
if we have, that the coming struggle to maintain it will demonstrate that it is a 
Government of power and overwhelming force, against the offenders of the law. 
If, however, we have nothing more than a sort of mutual admiration society in 
this House, and in the other, it is time the people understood that fact also. It 
is better for tbem to understand that now. If there is any truth in the doctrine 
of the secessionists, our Government never had any vital power ; and it is, and 
ever has been, as they expound it, the merest rope of sand — a cheat and a swin- 
dle against those who have hitherto sustained it. 

The people have been spending millions of money every year under the delusive 
idea that Congress was making laws that they actually meant should be obeyed ; 
and, at this late day, they awake to the reality that those laws were only sub- 
mitted to the consideration of offenders to see whether they would like to obey 
them. 



We see treason and cold-blooded rebellion culminating in tbe destruction of 
the rights of the law-abiding people of the land; but we are coolly told that the 
Army and Navy must not molest them. Why ? Lest they should become of- 
fended, and then possibly somebody might be hurt. Awful ! It is said, too, 
that if you at^^empt to execute the laws, war will be the result. My answer is 
this : we are to perform our duty, our own duty, and leave the result to God. We 
propose no war against anybody, much less against any State. We only ask that 
the laws be duly executed against individual offenders. 

Who is not opposed to war? Who does not shudder at the contemplnfion of 
clashing arms among a people of one blood and country? But bad as it is, there 
are some things even worse than war, when carried on by a well-established Gov- 
ernment. Anarchy is worse The loss of honor, and the loss of public credit, 
and a broken and shattered Government, whose laws are derided and trampled 
under foot : these are worse than war to maintain the most favored and glorious 
and blessed Republic that the sun ever shone upon. 

But no war will come if we are prepared to vindicate the laws. It is r,he very 
absence of preparation that invites troubles like those which now surround us. 
Let the Government act with firmness and vigor, and all will be well. The pres- 
ent is no time for temporizing. Men insane with passion have risen up in arms 
against the Republic, and their causeless rebellion has already attracted the eye 
of the civilized world, and the leading Governments of Europe are looking from 
their high places intently upon us, to see if our institutions can survive the shock 
of well-organized treason. Liberty-loving men of all countries are watching us 
with the interest that more than seventy years of successful experiment has in- 
spired in their minds ; and for the action which we now take, civilization as well 
as history itself will hold us sternly responsible. Sir, we are now on trial before 
the whole world, to see whether freemen have the right to choose their own rulers, 
or whether a factious minority shall dictate terms and men to the majority. 

If those in arms against the laws may force the Government into dishonorable 
compromise, we have do security for our Government for a single presidential 
term ; for the people of any section, if they happen to dislike the President elect, 
can easily vote themselves out of the Union, and again and again compel the 
law-making and the law-executing power to surrender to their absurd and unjust 
demands. The precedent once established, what is the elective franchise in this 
country worth ? Absolutely nothing, and less than nothing. It is the shadow 
without the substance. 

Those who stand up against the Government, and in open rebellion against it, 
although it secures to them higher privileges than any upon the face of the earth, 
seek to excite sympathy and attract support, by drawing a comparison between 
their political condition under it, and that of the colonists under the King of 
England ; but a more absurd comparison, in my judgment, was never instituted, 
as we will show. 

Mr. JENKINS. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a question, for the 
purpose of understanding him ? The gentleman speaks of enforcing the laws and 
collecting the revenue at any extreme and at all hazards Now, suppose fifteen 
States of this Union should secede, and confederate under a common govern- 
ment : would the gentleman advocate a subjection of them to submission ? Would 
he insist upon the enforcement of the laws, as he calls it, or would he recognize 
them as a government (7e/ac<o.^ 

Mr. GURLEY. I might say, "suflBcient unto the day is the evil thereof." 
The principle is the same, whether applied to one State or fifteen. 1 am for 
executing the laws. 



. Mr. JENKINS. I ask the gentleman, if twenty States should secede and 
confederate together, whethor he would propose that the other thirteen should 
subjugate them ? 

Mr. GURLEY. When they go out, I will answer that question. 
I was saying that those who stand up now in open rebellion against the Grov- 
ernment, do so although it secures to them higher privileges than would be se- 
cured to them by any other government upon the face of the earth ; and that 
they are exciting sympathy by drawing comparisons between their political con- 
dition under it and the colonists under the King of England. But, I ask, did 
the colonists create the King ? Did they set up the throne? Did they elect the 
Parliament? Did they even elect and control their own Governors? Nay, -sir, 
the very acts whif'h they passed, with the exception of some colonies, had to 
receive the sanction of the English sovereign before they became law. A foreign 
despotism held undisputed sway over them. 

Now, sir, let gentlemen who complain of oppression in the light of complaints 
uttered by our fathers against English rule, tell us who established the Govern- 
ment under which we live. Did it come from a foreign despot? from a king? 
from au emperor ? It came from your fathers and mine. Who but the patriots 
of the revolutionary times gave us the glorious institutions which have been the 
pride and admiration of all wise and good men ? And now, who carry on this 
Government ? The people of all the States, who elect the Chief Magistrate ; 
tlie people, whu create the laws; the people, by their sovereignty and represent- 
atives. And yet gentlemen of the South assure us that they are oppressed. 
'- )ppressed ! Oppressed ! How oppressed, and by whom ? If at all, by the 
Government which they themselves have helped to create, and have controlled, 
as they openly boast, for fifty years. It is their Government ; and what do they 
propose to do now ? Trample upon the very laws they have made with their 
own brains and with their own hands. They assume to lay violent hands upon 
their own work, aud commit political suicide. They will overturn the Govern- 
ment because it is not certain that they can control it in the future as they have 
controlled it in the past. And this is called consistency ; this is called a decla- 
ration of their independence. Sir, I call it the independence of treason and 
rebellion ; and that treason is to be punished in a way specified by statute of the 
United States. I will ask th:it one passage be read upon that subject. 

The Clerk read, as follows: 

"If any citizen shall commit any piracy or robbery aforesaid, or any act of hostility 
against the United State«, or ;iuy citizen thereof, upon the high seas, under color of any 
commission from any foreign Prince or State, or on pretence of authority from any person, 
such oifender shall, notwithstanding the pretence of any such authority, be deemed, 
adjudged, and taken to be a pirate, felon, and robber; and on being thereof conyicted, 
shall suiFer death." — Statutes at Large, vol. 1, p. 113. 

My. GURLEY. Mr. Chairman, my own State contains a larger white popu- 
lation than five southern States which I can name ; aud we have two Senators 
and they have ten ! But with all this inequality in favor of the South, they 
come to us and demand new guarantees of fidelity to their peculiar institution, 
if not positive pledges of servility on the part of the free States. They go 
further, sir, and actually ask that our people walk up to the polls and record the 
uoicts of a few hundred men at Charleston or Baltimore. And if we refuse to 
de that, what do they say? What have they said in this House? They will 
ndll down the pillars of this great Republic, and " look to their guns for justice 
aep right." The moment we dare to cast our votes as freemen should, and select 
thdman of our deliberate choice for President, in correspondence with the Con- 



stitution and the laws of the land, we commit an unpardonable sin, and there is 
an end to free government. On this principle, we can have no higher political 
privileges than the people of Austria or Russia. We are required to become 
the obedient servants of a cottonocracy, and sink the freemen in a craven political 
dependent. 

I maintain, sir, that there is no excuse, no apology whatever, for rebellion 
against a Government where the people themselves make and control it. Violent 
revolutions are justifiable against kingly despotism, without doubt ; but not against 
our Government, where each man is himself a ruler. Revolution against that is 
a high crime. It is a leap in the dark. It is wild anarchy; and, if successful, 
must end in military rule, in general war, and general oppression. If we fail to 
preserve the present Confederacy, a reconstruction upon the basis that will be de- 
manded is impossible ; and twelve months will not pass from the time of its over- 
throw before we shall have upon us all the horrors of Mexican warfare. 

This great Union and Constitution are now in the keeping of the people's ser- 
vants here, and they have the control of the Army and the Navy. Let them guard 
the former well ; for if by any means they perish in their hands, the great histo- 
rian of nations will write them down as the most feeble, pusillanimous cowards 
that ever disgraced a free country. 

Rut, sir, let us look at some of the results of breaking up our Government. If 
States may separate at will, where is your public faith? What better are your 
treaties than the naked parchment upon which they are written ? Who then will 
become the purchasers of your bonds ? In what condition will be your widow 
and orphan and benevolent societies that have placed their all in the public credit? 
What man would trust a people for one dollar who would tamely permit traitors 
to insult their flag and steal their property with impunity ? (3ne thing is certain : 
if the organized Government here does not vindicate its honor and resent it 
wrongs, and anarchy comes, the people of the free States will do that work most 
thoroughly. 

Mr. Chairman, so long as gentlemen confine themselves to the harmless busi- 
ness of dissolving this Union upon paper, and setting up in their poetical imagi- 
nations a Government antagonistic to that of the United States, I certainly have 
no disposition to break in upon their dreams of wealth and glory consequent upon 
the new order of things ; but if the attempt is to be made to make these mere 
dreams the basis of action against our great temple of republican freedom, reared 
by patriotic hands and minds ; if indeed they should take a practical form, and 
result in the actual invasion of the rights of our General Government as illus- 
trated in the conduct of those who have recently seized upon its property in the 
South, then, sir, I am for using every means which Almighty God has given us 
to maintain the laws, the Constitution, and the Union. This, sir, I am sure is the 
sentiment of the ten million people living in the West and Northwest, with here 
and there an exception ; and I would now most respectfully suggest to the seces- 
sionists of the South and to all who are disposed to break up this grear. and glorious 
Confederacy, that it would be at least an act of prudence to consult those ten mil- 
lion They are now a power in the nation to the extent of one-third ; and they 
mean to be heard, and if need be felt, on this impending ([uestion. 1 will not 
say that no traitors will be found in the free States west of the Alleghany moun- 
tains; but if any, they will be as one to twenty tories in the Revolution. And 
now, sir, is their a single man so beside himself as to suppose that these ten mil- 
lion hardy people will look calmly on or take a neutral position, and see State after 
State leave the Union, and the Mississippi river pas;, into the control of a 



foreign Government? I deny it. No, sir; they settled up that country with a 
clear understanding that that river and its various tributaries should forever flow 
in the United States of America, free for a commerce that already rivals that of 
the Atlantic coast — the great unobstructed highway to the ocean. Heaven have 
mercy upon the men who attempt to make it anything else, or place a single disa- 
bility upon its trade or commerce. 

I know the spirit and the temper of the people of the West, and I know also 
that they never will submit to the Mississippi river being controlled by any power 
except that of the Cnion. Sir, there is a gathering storm in the West. The 
South may not see, and if they see, may not heed it ; but a mighty storm is com- 
ing nevertheless. Our people are slow to anger, and will bear much before they 
strike down the invaders of their rights j but there is a point of endurance beyond 
which they will not go. 

This work of driving our people from territory where they have guarantied 
rights as American citizens ; this work of planting cannon upon the Mississippi 
river for treasonable purposes ; this work of personal violence in New Orleans 
and other places, all must cease, or tens of thousands of men will rush to the com- 
bat and sweep the entire coast of Mississippi and Louisiana ; and, their just indig- 
nation once fairly aroused, no power this side of Heaven can prevent them from 
making the foundation of New Orleans the bed of a lake where fishes will dwell 
instead of men. 

I now wish to call the attention of the committee to some outrages commit- 
ted on the commerce of the Mississippi river. T ask to have a short extract 
read. 

The Clerk read from the Chicago Tribune of 14th instant, as follows : 

" A few days since one of our heaviest wholesale grocery firms, doing a large business 
with the city of New Orleans, had occasion to send a large shipment of flour to that city. 
This they proposed to do in their usual form of insurance — an open policy. But at the last 
moment comes the intelligence by telegraph that the New York insurers have canceled the 
policy, and refuse to insure cargoes on the Mississippi river. The firm have sent their flour 
to New York for ocean freight to New Orleans. 

" Simultaneously with the above, the wholesale grocery houses are advised by our Chi- 
cago underwriters, that they must largely advance rates of insurance on shipments of sugar 
from New Orleans, a rate which will tell heavily against the advantages of New Orleans as 
a sugar market, and, with the reasons for this change, will do much to divert trade to the 
seaboard. Now, all this is the result of the action of the seceding State of Mississippi, 
which gives three hundred miles of a doubtful, perhaps hostile, coast, to be added to_ the 
risks of river navigation : no slight addition to be sure ; for who believes that the traitors 
who are arming Mississippi against the Union would stick at supplying a scanty commis- 
sariat by a seizure of northern produce ? Underwriters and capitalists do not consult polit- 
ical demagogues as to their business interests. Capital is quick to take alarm, and is most 
sagacious. Thus, by a single blow at the hand of traitors, Chicago and New Orleans are 
put wide asunder by the interposed foreign State of Mississippi." 

Mr. MAYNARD. I should like to ask the gentleman from Ohio, if this oc- 
curs in the present state of affairs, what would it be when the Union is dissolved 
and the Government broken up ? " If this thing be done in the green tree, 
what will not be done in the dry ?" 

Mr. GURLEY. If the Union be broken up, and war follow, let the conse- 
quences fall on those who are responsible. Do southern gentlemen expect that 
the people of the far West will fold their hands in indifference, and see their 
commerce interrupted, their steamboats fired into ? How long do they expect us 
to submit to it ? Sir, no foreign Government on the face of the earth could 
commit such outrages against this nation without an immediate declaration of 
war. And now I say, that with strong hands and stout hearts our people settled 



8 

up the West. With their own right arm they leveled the forest, and prepared 
the land for themselves and their children. The very hardships they have en- 
dured make them strong and brave ; and woe to those who attempt by force to 
take from them a single right which they possess upon any river that flows 
toward the sea. 

In conclusion, sir, I will say that I am for practical and speedy legislation to 
meet the exigencies of the times. Give us a bill permitting the President to 
receive volunteers to sustain the national Government. Pass it ; let it become a 
law at once ; and if you need fifty thousand soldiers from the West you will 
have them ; a hundred thousand, and you will have them. And then, if the 
worst comes to the worst, and the stars and stripes are still in danger, ask for 
five hundred thousand, and they will be at your command. Do any call this an 
extravagant statement ? Sir, we have in Ohio alone nearly three^hundred thou- 
sand able-bodied men who are subject to military duty by our laws. They will 
defend the Union ; they will defend the Government ; they will defend the Cap- 
itol ; and they will defend our glorious flag as long as they have a loaf of bread 
to eat or a gun to fire. 

Peace and harmony we all desire ; but we will never purchase them with dis- 
honor and the surrender of self-respect. Those who make war upon the Govern- 
ment without any just cause must bear the responsibility and punishment which 
belong to rebels and traitors. 

It has been supposed that the people of the West are divided in sentiment on 
this subject, and that a large number of them side with those who are now seek- 
ing to destroy the Government. This, however, will be found to be a great mis- 
take. The resolutions of the Legislature of Ohio, as read from the clerk's desk 
this morning, show that the people of Ohio are all but unanimous on the subject 
of maintaining the Government. These resolutions passed the Senate unanimous- 
ly, by the votes of both Democrats and Republicans. Sir, when the question 
comes up of fidelity to this Union, and when the Government is in danger, we of 
the West will never stop to talk about names. We will overleap all party lines. 
We will, if need be, sink all party names 

"Deeper than did plummet ever sound." 

We will come in solid phalanx. We will rally as one man to defem^ the Union 
and maintain our glorious flag, which gives protection to our citizens in all lands. 
It now floats proudly, triumphantly over this Capitol, and it shall never be struck 
down by rebels at home or enemies abroad. 



McGlLL & WiTHiROW, St«am Press Printsrs, Washiugton, D. C 



• y^ "v^*V' X'^^v"" "v^*v' ' 

^* /^fe'-. %/ .-^C^-. %,** .'^'•. \/ .-^ 






ws ^^"-^^ •-^*" /\ *^^^*' ^^'"^^ "--^ 





D' 
















*"^** <^"*' *^^. '"..o' .0- 



V^' 






%^^ 






iV^^ 















V* ^*Xc^* '^ 4P . 
















^/ ^^" 



.^ ... 







"^0^ 



• ,^^ 




L-i 







/.C^^'^^o 



WERT 
BOOKBINDING 

Craniville Pa 
March Ap'ii 198? 




r ■ ^ 

^ •'•• vV^ °^ *•«* J.0 




%<^ 









-^^ 



